Once in Blue Moon
by Red Moon Kree
Summary: "You once said that I would defeat you only once in a Blue Moon. I only need to defeat you once. I only need one Blue Moon" *completed*
1. The Day Kid's Lunches Flew

Once in a Blue Moon  
  
~Part 1~  
  
Mortal Enemies  
  
~Food Fight~  
  
There, Zim was walking, with his lunch tray in his disgusting alien- scum hands, covered by his night black gloves. The lunch tray had the usual dirt: Corn and Mayonnaise, plus some other crud. So unknowing! Perfect. Dib tried to hide a triumphant grin as he turned around to sit at the part of the lunch bench that was not facing the table. As Zim approached Dib's table, Dib stuck his foot out, just enough that Zim tripped over it. Zim landed with his face buried in the tray of crud. Dib started to laugh as Zim slowly raised his face out of the tray. Nobody even glanced at the two.  
  
Dib put a hand to his mouth. "Oops, did I do that?"  
  
Zim wiped away the junk from his face and set his tray on the table beside him. "Dib, you wanna get messy? Fine with me." Zim sneered and grabbed a handful of the blue corn with the green mayonnaise smudged together with it and chugged it at Dib.  
  
Dib merely smiled as the food hit him. "Okay, Zim. Let's play." He took a handful of his own moldy food and threw it at Zim's face.  
  
"FOOD FIGHT!" Zim yelled.  
  
This was another day the skool children's lunches flew. 


	2. Watch Your Back

Hehe, don't you just hate short chapters? I'll try to make the next a bit longer, but it will be hard …………….  
  
I have just decided . . . . . I might make this a ZADR fic, but only a little one.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
15 minutes later . . .  
  
Dib groaned after he and Zim stepped out of the principal's office.  He had to clean that putrid mess in the cafeteria with Zim as well as the athletics closet next Friday, with Zim.  This was a special time, though.  Most of the times, he was the only one who got in trouble and Zim would easily just get away with it.  He vigorously pushed open the cafeteria doors and he and Zim stepped into the cafeteria.  Guck covered the floors, walls, and ceilings.   Fungus covered pasta hung from the lights like dead worms.  Smashed peas and corn smothered in ketchup lay on the ground.  
  
First, Dib tripped Zim again into the muck.  He needed some kind of revenge.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Friday came quickly. Dib knew that too well. He dreaded the day he would actually have to work together with Zim. He glanced at Zim who was sitting at the other side of the room. They both glared at each other with hatred in their hearts.  
  
"Class, today we'll be learning about photosynthesis, our only way of life and food. . . . and how it will eventually implode on itself! The sun will explode and we'll all be doomed, doomed, doomed . . . . ." Ms. Bitters ranted.  
  
Dib felt a spitball on the side of his neck. He turned around, and then he saw Zim, holding a laugh. Dib smirked at him, and just turned around again. Zim flew a paper airplane toward Dib and it hit Dib's head. Dib glared at Zim and opened the paper airplane up. Inside . . . .  
  
**Watch your back.**  
  
**Run like hell**  
  
**Or you won't stay alive**  
  
**To tell**  
  
**How you survived**  
  
**My painful wrath.**  
  
**I'm telling you**  
  
**Watch your back.**  
  
Dib snorted at the poem and he crumpled it up. He wrote a note and made it into a paper airplane. He threw it towards Zim and it hit Zim's head.  
  
Zim opened the airplane up it said: "I didn't know you liked making poetry".  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It began to snow later in the class. In fact, it snowed very quickly and hardly. There was a TWO-minute early evacuation and the snow was maybe about 6 inches high. All the students but two left for home. Dib and Zim.  
  
They still were bound to their punishment and they couldn't do anything about it. So, while the whole skool left, the two stayed there to clean the athletics closet.  
  
They worked in silence, not once turning back to face each other. They just put basketballs with basketballs; goals with goals; cones and cones. They worked for over an hour of silence. Their thoughts were mostly of nothing. Only thoughts of each other. That is, to avenge each other.  
  
Dib turned around to place a hockey stick in the corner when a sudden excruciating pain seized her back. Dib was pushed against the wall, the impact causing even more pain to everywhere in his body, with his face bleeding. He turned around weakly only to face Xav with a large wooden bat in his two hands that he had found in the closet.  
  
"Zim . . . ." Dib tried to speak but he could hardly force any words up. He glared at him with hatred as he leaned against the wall.  
  
"I told you to watch your back." Zim smirked. Then, he took the bat and sung it again. This time, he hit Dib in the stomach and Dib doubled over in pain, falling to the ground, causing another impact hurting himself even more. Zim was merely delighted, and he put the bat with the other bats in a cardboard box.  
  
"You know, Zim, that means nothing. I will be the one who wins. Just you see." Dib gasped for air. "You'll never defeat me. There's only a once in a blue moon chance you'll defeat me. Once in a blue moon."  
  
Zim scowled at the comment but he ignored it. "We're done. All we need is you to get out of here, and it will be perfectly clean." Xav pushed opened the closet door. "Have a happy new year, Dib. I'm sure next year my schemes will be a little more crucial and painful." Zim walked out of the closet, out of the school, and started to attempt to get home by walking through the blizzard that had formed outside.  
  
Dib weakly stood up. He was incredibly weak from the blow and he fell to his knees, shouting in pain. Feebly, he tried to stand up again. He leaned against the wall and took slow steps to the closet door. He opened it, but just barely so he could get through.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
What will happened to Dib? What will happen to Zim? Will I actually write a ZADR fic for once in my life? 


	3. Snowing A Life Sentence

**looks like all my chapters will be pretty short … **  
  
**Kree**  
  
Feebly, Dib trudged through the 6-inch high snow. His footsteps grew heavy each time. Soon, the snow grew from 6-inches to over a foot. All the pain from the blows from the bat put him through pure torture. Lifting his head through the snow became tiring. The snow blew at his face, past his glasses, and into his eyes. He squinted to see where he was going, because most of the snow anyway had completely covered the lenses in his glasses.  
  
Dib had no coat, except his own trenchcoat. It usually protected him from everything else, but it can only take so much. His father had never really gotten the time to buy him one in years, and his old one didn't fit. Snow began to pile inside his boots, freezing his feet. He shuddered as the cold icy wind brushed against his cheeks and through his black hair. He began to cough and sneeze violently.  
  
Finally, his legs grew weary and he couldn't take it anymore. He fell into the snow closing his eyes, know he was going to die a long, suffering death in the snow, but he didn't care. He doubted anyone would miss him. His family could care less; Gaz wouldn't mind having the annoying pest gone and it would take weeks before his dad knew he was gone. He had no friends whatsoever and the teachers hated him. And Zim? The whole purpose of their pointless lives was to battle to death. Enemies to the end. Zim had won. He wondered did these people see his suffering, his torture, his pain? Did they see he lost his dreams, hopes, and future? Did they see he had had nothing? Did they see he was in sadness and loneliness?  
  
He lost all conciseness and his last thoughts quickly disappeared.  
  
Zim squinted his eyes in the snow. He didn't know where he was going or where the heck his base was. He had been wondering for over a half an hour, going in circles. As he passed the school again, the snow began to pound harder against his back. Staying in the stupid cold human weather was worse than death and hell itself.  
  
Finally, he scanned across the endless fields of white, and spotted; black. He neared closer and closer to it: It was a familiar arm in a familiar black sleeve. Zim knelt down digging into the snow and saw familiar black hair. It was … Zim began digging vigorously. He lifted the lifeless figure in his arms. It was Dib!  
  
Zim froze. Not out of coldness, but out of confusion. He had no idea what to do. One part, the larger part much bigger than the other told him to leave Dib there. Leave him to die and claim his victory. They had sworn that one of them would kill each other. The world wasn't big enough for them. Dib was his sworn enemy. After he got rid of Dib, than his mission was a nice smooth easy ride without any pests annoying him. Leaving him to die and finding his own safety seemed like the better option.  
  
But then the tiny other part told him to help him. To get him out of the snow. It was just some unexplainable reason that made Zim try to wake Dib up.  
  
"Wake up. Dib, please wake up." Zim began to shake him. Zim blew on his hands to make them close to warm. He placed them on Dib's frozen lifeless cheeks, trying to warm him. Trying to wake him up. He couldn't.  
  
He looked sadly on Dib's pale face. He had really failed. Zim had won against his enemy, but had failed bringing his enemy to victory. A closed up part of his mind, or maybe his heart, controlled Zim completely. He leaned over and kissed Dib.  
  
Zim didn't want to go back to his base. Sure, now he could invade the Earth without any problems, but what was the purpose of that? Zim had fun and looked forward to having Dib come in and try to ruin his plans. He liked being chased now and threatened. Dib had become a part of him. Zim decided that he would just stay out here; out in the freezing cold until he died: with Dib.  
  
"Zim?" Dib's voice murmured. "Is that you?"  
  
"Dib!" Zim gasped. "Dib, you're alive!"  
  
"Zim … why … why are you here? Why are you holding me?"  
  
"Dib, stand up. I'll help you get to my base." Zim stood up and held his hand out to Dib. Dib struggled to his feet as he took Zim's hand. But because he was still weak, he fell onto Zim. Zim put his arm around him, Dib, around Zim. As they walked, Dib lost conciseness again and Zim tried to carry him with his arm around him.  
  
He wandered around for a long time with Cy. Finally, as he stared through the snow, he spotted his house. His heartbeat quickened. He carried Dib to the door and went inside.  
  
**Plz review!**  
  
**Kree** 


	4. Dreams

**Okay, this is not one of my better stories . . . .hopefully I should just get this done soon . . .**  
  
**SHORT SHORT SHORT**  
  
**Maybe I should just put all the chapters into one. . . . **  
  
**Kree**  
  
Dib could only stare and watch Zim make him soup as he sat in a couch with a blanket over him. What was Zim doing? Was he out of his mind? Why was he helping Dib?  
  
Dib shivered again. He was still a bit cold, and he was surprised that he wouldn't catch hypothermia. Zim came over, placed another warm blanket on Dib. He brought some hot soup him and Dib sat up and started eating quickly. As he finished, he whispered a grateful "thank you".  
  
"You're welcome."  
  
They were both silent for a while. Dib looked down in his bowl while Zim stared at his feet tugging on his gloves. They tried to avoid each other's glance. Finally Dib broke the silence. "Zim, why did you save me?" Dib demanded in his regular tone. "You hate me, you would do anything to kill me, I know that. You've tried everything hostile on me, tried to use for experiments, ruin my past, everything! We've hated each other from the moment we met. Why, Zim?"  
  
"How am I supposed to know?" Zim scowled. "I just saved you because it would be really boring if I didn't have some kind of pest to annoy me and try to stop me. You give me entertainment."  
  
Dib's head dropped. "Oh . . . . . okay . . . ."  
  
"Don't think this means anything," Zim sneered at him. "This means nothing, pathetic human. Don't think I'm wasting my time because I actually care."  
  
Dib lay down with his head turned away from Zim. "I'm gonna go to sleep now, thanks for the soup."  
  
Zim nodded but he felt strange. He went over to the elevator and went down to the lab. He went over to his chair and began to work on the computer. He began typing for awhile, but he found himself typing in the letters "D-I-B". Aghast at what he saw on the screen, he deleted it with a scowl. He tried to type again, but he couldn't concentrate. He only thought of Dib.  
  
"I don't care about Dib at all." He thought to himself. "He's just a puny Earth monkey." But he felt as if something was pulling at his heart. As if that wasn't the truth. Was he just lying to himself and telling him only what he wanted to hear?  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Skool started again after vacation. Zim glumly walked to skool heavyhearted as he was late. He took a seat and looked around.  
  
Dib wasn't here.  
  
Zim stared at the seat that held no person in it. "Where was he?" He asked himself in his head.  
  
Days past and still no Dib. Even Gaz wasn't coming to skool after a while. Had they moved? It wasn't probable, there was no news of Professor Membrane moving.  
  
What he saw a week later shocked him: another girl had taken Dib's seat. Zim's hand shot abruptly up. Ms. Bitters saw him and groaned. "Yes Zim?" She snarled.  
  
"Ms. Bitters, as it is obvious to see, there is someone who does not belong in this classroom." He started.  
  
Ms. Bitters rolled her eyes. "Who?"  
  
"That girl in Dib's seat!" He pointed to her.  
  
"She is the new student. She just moved here and Ms. Bitters just introduced her." Zita sneered. "And good riddance, she took Dib's spot! Now we'll never have to see Dib again!"  
  
Everyone in the class laughed as Zim felt as if he could melt in his chair. How could Ms. Bitters just let the new girl take Dib's spot without a care? What had happened to Dib?  
  
After skool, Zim decided to go to Dib's house. He didn't know why he hadn't thought about it before. He would just ask where Dib is, see him, ask where was he, tell him he is overdue for an insult and then leave . . .  
  
He knocked on the door: no answer. He knocked again: still no answer. He rapped on it loudly: silence. He realized that the door was open. He quietly and carefully opened it and stepped inside. "Dib!" He yelled out loudly. Apparently no one was home.  
  
Zim walked into the kitchen. He saw a note on the refrigerator.  
  
**Gaz**  
  
**Please come to your brother's hospital room, 294, after skool immediately.**  
  
**Dad**  
  
Zim's jaw dropped. Hospital room? Dib was in the hospital? Zim shot out of the kitchen and out the door. He needed to get to the hospital. He needed to see Dib.  
  
He ran into the doors of the hospital and up to the front desk. He asked for Dib and she asked if he was family. He quickly lied and said yes so she directed him to where his room was. He didn't bother to thank her and he just rushed down the halls and up and elevator. He scanned the hall for his room and found it. Luckily, he just spotted Gaz and Professor Membrane walking out . . . . crying . . . .  
  
Zim stopped. Should he go in?  
  
He slowly walked up to his door and turned the knob. He opened it and stepped inside.  
  
There was Dib with tons of tubes going in and out his body. He gasped when he saw Dib, weak, frail, and pale, lying on the bed. What had happened to him? He never looked so weak. Zim never saw anyone who looked so weak.  
  
Dib spotted him out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened. "Zim? What are you doing here?" Dib tried to talk, but it sounded very hoarse.  
  
"I thought you were a bit more smarter not to talk when you need to rest," Zim replied calmly. "What happened, Dib?"  
  
"I have a disease, Zim." Dib scowled as if he was explaining it to a four year old. "A deathly disease."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Something called AIDS."  
  
"What does it do?"  
  
"Destroys your immune system so you are more vulnerable to little kinds of diseases like colds."  
  
"When did you get it?"  
  
"Aren't you full of the questions? I was diagnosed with it when I was real little. The aliens that abducted me did that. I was affected when I was out in the cold." And then he coughed violently. "I'm not really afraid though."  
  
"Afraid of what?" Zim dared the question.  
  
"Of dying," Dib spoke softly. "I'm just disappointed. Disappointed I couldn't really complete all my dreams and wishes. I wanted to become a paranormal investigator. One whom everyone would like. And I guess, I wanted to stop you from taking over the world, but maybe you're meant to rule my planet. I just had to die . . ." He coughed again. "And I wanted someone who cared about me. But that one I have."  
  
"Well, that's good."  
  
"I have you."  
  
Zim hesitated. "I do NOT care about you."  
  
"And I believed you, but you wouldn't be here if you didn't."  
  
Zim was about to comment back, but he knew that Dib was right. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But maybe, you know, I could go home and find a cure for this AIDS thing . . ."  
  
"No, Zim. I'm dying. I'm going to die soon. Just let me die, okay?" Dib whispered. "Promise?"  
  
"I promise."  
  
Gaz and Professor Membrane walked into the room now. Gaz spotted him and her red eyes widened, but she didn't say anything because she quickly turned her glance to Dib. She went over to him and kissed him on the cheek. She hugged him and he weakly hugged back. His arms were very weak.  
  
"Gaz . . . dad . . ." Dib whispered again as his dad hugged him warmly. Zim saw Dib smile at Zim and slowly close his eyes.  
  
"I defeated you . . . once in a blue moon . . .but it's not what I want anymore." Zim thought. He looked at Dib again and let tears slowly fall down his face. He quickly wiped them away. He still had a mission.  
  
A few nurses and doctors came into the room now. "This is it. I have to do it now." Zim tore off his wig and took off his contacts. The doctors and nurses screamed. Gaz and Professor Membrane just stared.  
  
"You're an alien . . ." Gaz stammered. "Just like Dib said . . ."  
  
"My little son was right . . . he saw what we didn't . . . ." Professor Membrane cried, but then he smiled. "I'm so proud . . ."  
  
Zim was being taken away, but he smiled to himself. Gaz was already fighting for him and she wanted to become a paranormal investigator. Zim would never be able to take over the world now, and Dib left behind three people who really strongly cared about him. Maybe not the whole world, but Gaz's, Professor Membrane's, and his care must have been stronger than any force in the world.  
  
**Done!**  
  
**hoped you enjoyed it!**  
  
**Kree** 


End file.
